


Tales of Hallowed Ground

by GracefulQuartz



Category: Hollow Knight (Video Games)
Genre: Child Abandonment, Drabbles, Major Spoilers, More tags to be added, Multi, Shades, The Pale King feels things, discarding your children, the abyss - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-03
Updated: 2020-05-03
Packaged: 2021-03-01 20:33:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 511
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23983132
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GracefulQuartz/pseuds/GracefulQuartz
Summary: The kingdom of Hallownest once bustled with activity, filled with the heart and soul of a people spared from Light. Now it sits, dark, cold and empty, with mere echoes of a civilisation once proud lingering in its halls.A collection of Hollow Knight drabbles and ideas that spring to my head. I'm trying to post even if I'm not happy with the chapter, so revisions may happen. Most of these are very small but hey.
Relationships: The Pale King/White Lady (Hollow Knight)
Kudos: 7





	Tales of Hallowed Ground

The rattling of chitin echoed and faded as another child-bug fell into the creeping darkness of The Abyss. This one had no name, no gender, just like the rest. Nothing to attach itself to. Thousands upon thousands of hatchlings spawned from Wyrm-bug and Root had fallen down the same way. And yet… there was always the tinge of guilt and regret inside the Pale King’s heart.   
A simple tear formed, soft and gentle, seeping out of the carapace he had bound himself in to give these bugs life, a will separate from each other. To shelter them from a blinding light, and now that will was what put them in such danger. He would protect them, as was his duty. No cost would be too high.

The thought rang clear, cutting out the cries of his children far below, as they were slowly smothered by the Abyssal Void, taken, wound into something new. A second tear was stopped in its tracks. 

The Pale King turned, head held high as he walked through the gaping maw of a door in front of him, the single boundary between his kingdom and this accursed place. His bugs were hard at work, getting ready to seal the passage as soon as their Vessel had been found. Beyond his bugs stood the White Lady, resplendent and elegant, her roots winding into the rocks below absentmindedly as she watched. In her arms, a child, delicate and frail.   
His, but not hers. Not that she minded. A hatchling to care for, feed and shelter was enough to distract from the abstract massacre of her own progeny. Bound in soft, red cloth, to call her the remnant of a bargain struck was too reductive, rendering her an object, and she was no object.

They fell into step beside each other, the silence drowning out the clashing and hammering of tools against stone as they made their slow and painful way though the Basin, returning to what could be considered home.

He spoke first, a few steps though the arched and angled doorways of the White Palace, into the safety and security of a fortress of his own design.  
“Herrah wishes to see the Child again, a few days from now.”

The words were clinical, a facade put up to mask his own affection for the child, a vain and desperate attempt to repair a bridge not yet broken. He had never been apologetic, what was done is done, and no cost is too high. The Lady had even given her blessing.

“I am sure she wishes to see her sooner, but does not wish to inspire your ire, my Wyrm,” the Lady hummed, her words melodic and haunting, as though sung instead of spoken, through instruments of wood and air. “Will you permit it?”

The Wyrm looked aside, ignoring the throne room and making pace for the private quarters of the pair.

“All parents should see their children before they die. And while my Dreamers will never die, they will never again wake.”

And it was quiet. Silent. Deafening.

**Author's Note:**

> Pale King's a bastard and there's so much angst possible there. So here's a little bit. The Wyrm tries to be a cold asshole to make sure he can stop the Radiance, but he still has a heart. And that's whats really ruining it for him.


End file.
